Python split() Function: Syntax, Usage and Examples! (2024)

A Split() Function Can Be Used in Several Ways. They Are:

• Splitting the string based on the delimiter space
• Splitting the string based on the first occurrence of a character
• Splitting the given file into a list
• Splitting the string based on the delimiter new line character
• Splitting the string based on the delimiter tab
• Splitting the string based on the delimiter comma
• Splitting the string based on multiple delimiters
• Splitting the string into a list
• Splitting the string based on the delimiter hash
• Splitting the string by passing maxsplit parameter
• Splitting the string into a character array
• Splitting the string based on one of the substrings from the given string as the delimiter

Splitting the String Based on the Delimiter Space:

The given string or line is separated using the split() function with whitespace as the delimiter.

Example 1:

Python program to demonstrate split() function in Python with space as delimiter:

#creating a string variable to store the string to be split

string_to_be_split = 'We love Simplilearn'

#using split() function with space as delimiter to split the given string into smaller strings

print(string_to_be_split.split(" "))

The output of the above program is shown in the snapshot below:

Splitting the String Based on the First Occurrence of a Character:

The given string or line is separated using the split() function with the first occurrence of the character from the string specified as the delimiter.

Example 2:

Python program to demonstrate split() function in Python with the first occurrence of a given character in the string as delimiter:

string_to_be_split = 'Simplilearn'

#using split() function with the first occurrence of a given character in the string as delimiter to split the given string into smaller strings

print(string_to_be_split.split("i"))

The output of the above program is shown in the snapshot below:

Splitting the Given File Into a List:

The data in the file is split into several lines and each line is returned as an element in the list by making use of a split function called the splitlines() function in Python.

Example 3:

Python program to demonstrate splitlines() function in Python to split the data in the given file into a list:

#opening a file in read mode using open() function

fileopen = open("C:/Users/admin/Desktop/images/example.txt", "r")

#reading the contents of the file using read() function

fileread = fileopen.read()

#using splitlines() function to display the contents of the file as a list

print(fileread.splitlines())

fileopen.close()

The output of the above program is shown in the snapshot below:

Splitting the String Based on the Delimiter New Line Character:

The given string or line is separated using a split() function with a new line character as the delimiter.

Example 4:

Python program to demonstrate split() function in Python with new line character as delimiter:

string_to_be_split = 'We\n love\n Simplilearn'

#using split() function with space as delimiter to split the given string into smaller strings

print(string_to_be_split.split("\n"))

The output of the above program is shown in the snapshot below:

Splitting the String Based on the Delimiter Tab:

The given string or line is separated using the split() function with a tab as the delimiter.

Example 5:

Python program to demonstrate split() function in Python with tab as the delimiter:

string_to_be_split = 'We\t love\t Simplilearn'

#using split() function with space as delimiter to split the given string into smaller strings

print(string_to_be_split.split("\t"))

The output of the above program is shown in the snapshot below:

Splitting the String Based on the Delimiter Comma:

The given string or line is separated using the split() function with a comma as the delimiter.

Example 6:

Python program to demonstrate split() function in Python with delimiter comma:

string_to_be_split = 'We, love, Simplilearn'

#using split() function with space as delimiter to split the given string into smaller strings

string_after_split = string_to_be_split.split(",")

print(string_after_split)

The output of the above program is shown in the snapshot below:

Splitting the String Based on Multiple Delimiters:

Multiple delimiters can be specified as a parameter to the split() function by separating each delimiter with a |. The given string or line with multiple delimiters is separated using a split function called re.split() function.

Example 7:

Python program to demonstrate re.split() function in Python to split a given string or a line with multiple delimiters:

#importing the module re

import re

string_to_be_split = 'We, love\n Simplilearn'

#using re.split() function with comma and new line character as delimiters to split the given string into smaller strings

print(re.split(",|\n", string_to_be_split))

The output of the above program is shown in the snapshot below:

Splitting the String Into a List:

The given string or line can be split into a list using the split() function with any delimiters.

Example 8:

Python program to demonstrate split() function in Python to split a given string or a line with any delimiter:

string_to_be_split = 'We: love: Simplilearn'

#using split() function with : as delimiter to split the given string into smaller strings

print(string_to_be_split.split(":"))

The output of the above program is shown in the snapshot below:

Splitting the String Based on the Delimiter Hash:

The given string or line is separated using the split() function with a hash as the delimiter.

Example 9:

Python program to demonstrate split() function in Python to split a given string or a line with delimiter as hash:

string_to_be_split = 'We# love# Simplilearn'

#using split() function with # as delimiter to split the given string into smaller strings

print(string_to_be_split.split("#"))

The output of the above program is shown in the snapshot below:

Splitting the String by Passing the Maxsplit Parameter.

The maximum number of splits that a split() function can perform on a given string or line can be specified using the maxsplit parameter and passed as an argument to the split() function.

Example 10:

Python program to demonstrate split() function in Python with maxsplit parameter:

string_to_be_split = 'Welcome, to, Simplilearn'

#using split() function with maxsplit parameter to split the given string into smaller strings

print(string_to_be_split.split(" ", 2))

The output of the above program is shown in the snapshot below:

Splitting the String Into a Character Array:

The given string or line can be split into a list consisting of each character as the elements of the list using the split function called list() function.

Example 11:

Python program to demonstrate list() function in Python to split a given string or a line into several characters each one being the element in a list:

string_to_be_split = 'Simplilearn'

#using list() function to split the given string into a list

print(list(string_to_be_split))

The output of the above program is shown in the snapshot below:

Splitting the String Based on One of the Substrings From the Given String as the Delimiter:

The split() function can be used to split a given string or a line by specifying one of the substrings of the given string as the delimiter. The string before and after the substring specified as a delimiter is returned as the output.

Example 12:

Python program to demonstrate split() function in Python to split a given string or a line into several characters with one of the substrings of the given string being the delimiter:

string_to_be_split = 'Welcome, to, Simplilearn'

#using split() function with one of the substrings of the given string as the delimiter to split the given string into smaller strings

print(string_to_be_split.split("to"))

The output of the above program is shown in the snapshot below: